TR rice returns for tug of war over project proposals
About 310 tonne of rice sanctioned for rural infrastructure development in Rangpur Sadar upazila under the government's Test Relief (TR) programme for the fiscal year 2009-2010 has returned back due to tug of war between the upazila parishad chairman and union parishad chairmen.
Upazila parishad Chairman Mostafizar Rahman said delay in submission of the project proposals by most of the union parishad chairmen under the upazila is responsible for the situation.
Chairmen of six of the eight union parishads in the upazila, on the other hand, blamed the upazila chairman for failure to use the food grains for development programme.
Deadline for submitting project proposal was June 27.
"Two union parishad chairmen submitted project proposal before the deadline but six others submitted it on June 30. And so, it could not be approved and the food grain returned back," said Mostafizar Rahman.
The union parishad chairmen, on the other hand, said they submitted their project proposals in time but the upazila chairman did not approve it as they did not comply with his 'unwanted requested'.
"The upazila chairman asked the UP chairmen to leave 40 percent of the food grain for projects taken by him and the two vice chairmen," Tapadhan union parishad Chairman Ferdous Alam Saju said.
"There is no provision for submission of projects by upazila parishad chairman and vice chairmen. Therefore, the UP chairmen refused to comply with the request of the upazila chairman. As per government circular, the upazila parishad chairman, who is the president of the TR committee, is to approve the project proposals prepared by UP chairmen," he said.
When asked, the upazila chairman said, "I and two vice chairmen requested the union parishad chairmen to leave 40 percent food grain for the projects taken by us. We are also public representatives and we made commitment to the people about development programme in the areas. That is why we requested them to leave 40 percent food grain. As the UP chairmen did not comply with our request, we did not accept the project proposals that were submitted late."
Every year the government undertakes rural infrastructure development projects under Test Relief and Food for Work Programme in lean period in the northern region. These programmes for repairing roads, drains, culverts, educational institutions, religious centres, and graveyards provide temporary employment opportunity for a large number of ultra poor people in the rural areas when there is no job in farmlands.
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